The Marine Corps Marathon calls itself the ‘Peoples’ Marathon. I ran the Marine Corps Marathon twice and it is a terrific marathon. However, I would have to rate the Oklahoma Marathon as the best ‘Peoples’ marathon I have run to date. The organizing committee intentionally puts a limit of 300 runners in order to allow them to cater to the runners. One of the perks of the marathon is that race headquarters, the expo and the pre marathon pasta dinner are all held at the Tulsa Hilton. The marathon rate to stay at the Hilton is only $59.00 a day (and a PR for me at a Hilton) and the Hilton is only about 1 1/2 miles from the start - finish line. I wouldn’t expect an expo at a marathon that only had 300 runners but there was an expo. Granted it wasn’t very big, but it had almost anything a marathoner may need to purchase for the marathon (Gu, Powerbars, gloves, hats, socks, shorts, long and short sleeve shirts, etc). The pre-pasta dinner was excellent and was served verses buffet. There were no well-known speakers at the pasta dinner, just well known local marathon volunteers. All first time marathoners were introduced and were presented First Time Marathon Certificates. Several of the first timers were former residents of a local boys and girls ranch that the marathon raises funds for through race proceeds and marathoner donations. I believe they raised over $6,000 last year (2001). The 50 State Marathon Club used this race as their annual meeting site. A few of the 50 Staters were introduced including Norm Frank who was running his 798 marathon. (Norm ran number 800 in December was recognized by Wrangler as a “Five Star Athlete Of The Year in the December 16th issue of Sports Illustrated.) Another 50 Stater was introduced who just finished running 52 marathons a year for the past three consecutive years.

Some marathoners prefer cloudy conditions but I love to run in the sun, especially when the temperature is in the high 40’s to mid 50’s, low humidity and just a slight breeze. This was the condition we had on race morning. The double loop, out and back course runs along the Arkansas River. It is run entirely on a paved path through a park along the river. Thus the course was very scenic, flat, very spectator friendly and it gave you the opportunity to see the other runners (including your friends) during the marathon. Most, if not all the runners were called out by name as they approached the finish line. The Finisher Medals were very nice as well as the Finisher Shirts. However, we did not receive the shirt after the marathon. It will take a few weeks to have all the finisher’s names printed on the back of the shirts and mailed to the finishers. Awards were presented at the finish line. The first 100 finishers were presented with a plaque with their finishing place number on the plaque. After resting a little and cleaning up, we spent most of the afternoon at the race director’s house where he hosted the post marathon ‘feed’.

The marathon itself was enjoyable, at least for the first 19 miles. Although I accidentally cleared my splits, I do remember that I was running a 3:37:00 marathon at the half marathon and still under 3:40:00 at 19 miles. I slowed down over the last 7 miles, finishing in 3:49:27 and placing 97th out of 300. Bob Panzak ran an excellent race finishing 3:14:03 and placing 27th. Linda Thompson ran a 4:37:27 finishing 187th and in the top two-thirds overall. We were all a little slower then we expected but we all ran a marathon just a few weeks ago (Linda ran Baltimore four weeks prior, I ran Rhode Island 5 weeks earlier and Bob ran Clarence Demar 6 weeks earlier).

48 marathons completed in 38 states. I guess it’s time for a little rest. Next marathon - St. Louis, on April 6 with Mary Ramba and Sean Black.

Rest if you must, just don’t quit,
Marty